Tepsi

Tepsi… the mere word makes me swoon.  When my mother-in-law died unexpectedly and much too early, it was the dish Enmar cooked to soothe us.  When we visit my brother-in-law, it’s the first thing he requests.  When I see a bowl of eggplant on the table, I know it’s coming.  It’s also low-fat and heart healthy.

2 lbs. ground beef or lamb (you can use turkey if you prefer)

Penzey’s Morrocan spice mix to taste (about 1/4 cup)

4 chopped cloves of garlic

Four large tomatoes

2 large onions

2 large or three medium eggplant

1 24 oz. can tomato puree

Olive oil

Slice the eggplant into disks and salt them liberally to remove some of the water from them.  Leave them on paper towels to drain while you work on the meat.

Mix the meat with the spices, salt, pepper and garlic, and form them into small shapes about the length and width of your first two fingers combined (about 1x1x3 inches). They’ll be the shape of short sausages or oblong patties.  Brown them in a saute pan, then set aside.

Next, pat the eggplant disks dry as you can.  Brown them in a saute pan over medium high heat, turning them once until they are slightly brown on both sides.  Put them on clean dry paper towels to drain.

Next slice the onions into quarter inch slices and tomatoes into half-inch slices.

In a 9×12 baking pan, put a layer of meat patties on the bottom.  Next add a layer of onions, then the eggplant, and finally the tomatoes.  Pour the can of tomato puree over the top to cover.  Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until the meat is cooked through and the onions are tender. Serve over basmati rice with a side of greek yogurt.

Grillin’ Time

Now that the sun is coming out more often in the PNW and the smell of charcoal has replaced the smell of firewood, it’s time to talk barbeque. Just as hamburgers are staples of the Midwestern grilling experience, Kofta Kabob are always on our grill. Kofta is very much like burgers in that it’s ground beef mixed with aromatics, herbs and spices, but the mix is then pressed onto flat skewers and grilled like a kabob. When we lived in Chicago, our butcher, Gus, would cut the beef and mix the chopped onions and parsley into the meat grinder to combine as it grinds. Nowadays we just buy ground meat and mix it at home.

Kofta Kabob

2 lbs. 85% lean ground beef
One medium red or white onion, chopped fine
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all these ingredients together until well combined, then press around flat skewers, and cook on the grill.  The result is a hamburger taste with a sort of sausage shape.  If you don’t have flat skewers, you can always bake these in an oven or layer them in a grill basket.

Serve them with basmati rice or on warmed pita bread with a side of tzaziki and some grilled vegetables.  Fresh lemonade and cold beer make good accompaniments, as they do with all barbeque.

For parties we typically serve these along with grilled lamb and chicken shish kabob to make a mixed grill. In the PNW, we add some grilled fish kabobs to the mix. Any way you do it, it’s a feast.

Shwarma

Most visits with my in-laws in Abu Dhabi involve a midnight trip to the drive-in for shwarma. You pull up to the curb and a waiter runs out to your car, takes your order, and brings back your sandwiches. Since we prefer not to wait for good shwarma, and we don’t have one of those vertical spits that restaurants use to cook them, we’ve learned how to make our own using a large skillet.  This is a VERY quick recipe, good for a weeknight and can be sized up to feed a crowd, which we’ve done often.

3 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into strips
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 T. minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a plastic container or a large ziploc bag and let them marinate for at least an hour and at most, overnight.
You’ll also need:

pita bread
dill pickles, cut into six or eight spears
aioli (garlic mayo, which you can make two ways)

While the chicken is marinating, slice up some dill pickles into thin spears and either make your own aioli from scratch (I use the recipe in the New Basics cookbook) or mix a cup of mayonnaise with 2 teaspoons of minced garlic.

Heat a large skillet on medium high heat and dump the marinated chicken into the pan. Saute until the chicken strips are lightly browned.

To assemble a shwarma sandwich, take a pita, slather it with the garlic mayo, and drop in a couple of thin pickle spears, then pile on some cooked chicken. Fold or roll it and dig in. Use lots of napkins. This is messy goodness at its best.

Variations:

If you are egg-allergic, skip the aioli and use hummus or baba ganoush instead. Both are tasty.

If you prefer to use lamb, get leg meat, skip the lemon juice and add a shwarma spice mix to the marinade instead.

I’ve seen folks put everything from tomato and onion slices to cole slaw in their shwarma so knock yourself out on the condiments.  (No ketchup or mustard though.  Ick.)  We made an entire party once out of a batch of chicken, a batch of lamb, and a bunch of different condiment so folks can make their own.  It’s a great choice when a game is on and the host would rather be glued to the big screen than the kitchen.

Comfort chicken

For me there’s no better warm comfort food than my husband’s thureed.  It has all the rustic charm of the chicken and dumplings I ate as a child and sits more lightly on the stomach than a beefier stew.  When the brothers get together, we put it in a large round pasta bowl and eat it with our fingers with kitchen towels tucked into our shirts.  For company we bring out the silverware and the real napkins.  Either way, it’s deeply satisfying.

1 whole chicken cut in eight pieces

1 large white onion

5 cloves of chopped garlic

1 can chickpeas

1 T turmeric

1 T curry powder

1 t. black pepper

salt to taste

1/2 cup lemon juice

4 Indian Naan breads (most groceries have these now. Trader Joe’s definitely does)

1 quart Greek yogurt

2 finely minced cloves of garlic

1 t. salt

Saute the onions in a little olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven until translucent and starting to brown.  add the chicken pieces and brown the skin a bit, then add the garlic and spices, stirring them around in the pan until everything is incorporated.  Pour in 4-5 cups of chicken stock and bring the pot to a boil.  When it starts to boil, skim the fat off the top, then partially cover the pot, leaving a small opening where steam can escape from and cook on medium high heat for 1 hour until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened. Add the chick peas to warm through, then stir in the lemon juice and let simmer for a few minutes.

Turn on the oven to 425 degrees, then heat 4 whole naan breads until crispy.  Break the bread into pieces about the size of your palm and toss them into the bottom of a broad relatively shallow bowl such as a pasta bowl.  Pour the chicken and sauce over the bread and let it sit covered in foil for about 5 minutes so the bread has time to soak up some of the stock.  The longer it soaks, the more dumpling-like it gets.

For the sauce, finely mince the two cloves of garlic and whisk it and the salt into the yogurt.  Serve a dollop with the thureed.  If you like your starches, you can also serve basmati rice with this dish.

Variations:  Why mess with perfection?

Thanksgiving Iraqi-style

Every other year we cook Thanksgiving dinner for my sister’s family.  Our meal has evolved to include traditional dishes our respective birth families grew up with, some we adopted from years breaking bread with some German neighbors, and now some Iraqi specialties as well.  Here’s how the meal shaped up for this year:

Hummus – everybody’s favorite appetizer

Poutine – a PNW/Canadian specialty transplanted to Philly, basically fries with gravy and cheese, a big hit this year

Lahab Salad (of course)

Greek salad (cukes, tomatoes, onions, feta, mint, yum)

Turducken stuffed with biryani – The first time we had turducken we bought one ready made.  Last year we stuffed our own and it was awesome.  This year, we stuffed again, made some adjustments, and got good reviews.

Mashed potatoes – from boiled fresh potatoes, not Potato Buds.  Long story for another time.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows and honey – an in-law family favorite

Green beans with tomato sauce – an ode to the Iraqi side

Pumpkin pie – for my niece

Pecan pie – for my husband

Apple pie – for my sister

Carrot cake – also very good

A good time was had by all 14 of us and leftovers lasted through Saturday.  There’s nothing like bringing everybody together to share a great meal.

Chili and football

In my house, football means English Premier League soccer as well as the NFL and the “chili” we eat is called Yabsa. Now that the leaves have turned and both American and English football are on TV all weekend, we are eating a lot of this.

Yabsa

2 lbs. ground beef or italian sausage or a pound of each
1 head of garlic (10 cloves) chopped
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
2 10 oz. cans of tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
2 14 oz. cans of Great Northern Beans

Salt, pepper and brown the ground meat in a heavy pot or dutch oven until cooked through. Then add the chopped garlic and stir just long enough that you can start to smell the garlic cooking. (As soon as you can smell the garlic cooking, add the liquid. If you let the garlic burn it’ll taste bitter.) Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste along with two cups of water or stock. Bring to a boil and let the mixture cook on medium heat for 30 minutes. Next, turn down the heat to low. Open the cans of northern beans and put them in a colander to drain the liquid, then add them to the pot. Let simmer on low for 30 more minutes, then taste the mixture and add salt and pepper until it tastes like you like it. Serve with basmati rice and a dollop of yogurt on the side.

Variations: If you’re trying to eat less red meat, this works just as well with ground turkey and ground turkey sausage. If you like it a little smokier, you can add 2 tablespoons of smoked paprika.

Preserved Lemon Tagine

A few years ago my husband and I had a lovely vacation in Marrakesh.  Anyplace that has rose bushes and clementine trees growing in the medians is fine by me and we had an unbelievably interesting day hanging out with the family of our regular cab driver, Said.

During this visit I fell in love with tagines (which are basically like stews) made with preserved lemons.  It’s easier than you think to preserve lemons and the rewards are plentiful, especially during those times of year when you can’t really get good produce.  I made a jar of preserved lemons for us by simply dissolving a half cup of salt in a quart of water, then pouring that over two dozen small lemons, cut in half, and jamming them into an airtight glass jar that sits on my kitchen counter.  (The salt and the acid from the lemons keep bacteria from growing and the sight of all that sunny yellow cheers me during our relentlessly overcast winter.)  Once they’ve sat there a few months, you can use them.  The trick is to only use the skin of the lemons, not the flesh.  While the flesh will be so bitter it will be caustic and inedible, the skin will have gone all soft and tender and is very flavorful.

This is my favorite tagine recipe and it’s a good quick weeknight supper.  If you don’t have a tagine, a dutch oven works just fine.

6 boneless chicken thighs

1 dozen green olives

the skin from one whole preserved lemon, chopped into slivers or chunks

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 medium onion, sliced or diced

1 cup chicken stock or white wine (or mix them up)

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

Brown the chicken thighs in a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of the pan or tagine, then add the onion and cook until browned and translucent.  Finally, toss in the garlic and saute just until you can smell it’s aroma rising from the pan.  Toss in the rest of the ingredients, then cover the pan and cook in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Serve over couscous or rice.

NOTE: Couscous is ridiculously easy to make.  You simply put whatever amount of it you want in a glass bowl, and pour over an equal amount of boiled water or stock.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit while the tagine is in the oven.  The couscous will absorb all the liquid and be cooked through.  This also works with bulgar (a cracked wheat).  Another good option for a base is quinoa, which cooks just like rice.  I’ve also served this with orzo pasta on occasion.

Variation:  If you like a mix of sweet and salty in dishes (which I do but some in my family don’t) swap out the olives for a half cup of sultanas (white raisins) and swap out the turmeric for a half teaspoon of cinnamon.  It adds a level of complexity to the flavor that I quite like.